This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
[1337b]
[1]
and nothing is agreed as regards the exercise conducive to
virtue, for, to start with, all men do not honor the same virtue, so that they
naturally hold different opinions in regard to training in virtue.It is
therefore not difficult to see that the young must be taught those useful arts
that are indispensably necessary; but it is clear that they should not be taught
all the useful arts, those pursuits that are liberal being kept distinct from
those that are illiberal, and that they must participate in such among the
useful arts as will not render the person who participates in them vulgar. A
task and also an art or a science must be deemed vulgar if it renders the body
or soul or mind of free men useless for the employments and actions of virtue.
Hence we entitle vulgar all such arts as deteriorate the condition of the body,
and also the industries that earn wages; for they make the mind preoccupied and
degraded. And even with the liberal
sciences, although it is not illiberal to take part in some of them up to a
point, to devote oneself to them too assiduously and carefully is liable to have
the injurious results specified. Also it makes much difference what object one
has in view in a pursuit or study; if one follows it for the sake of oneself or
one's friends, or on moral grounds, it is not illiberal,
[20]
but the man who follows the same pursuit because of
other people would often appear to be acting in a menial and servile
manner.The branches of study at present
established fall into both classes, as was said before.1
There are perhaps four customary
subjects of education, reading and writing, gymnastics, music, and fourth, with
some people, drawing; reading and writing and drawing being taught as being
useful for the purposes of life and very serviceable, and gymnastics as
contributing to manly courage; but as to music, here one might raise a question.
For at present most people take part in it for the sake of pleasure; but those,
who originally included it in education did so because, as has often been said,
nature itself seeks to be able not only to engage rightly in business but also
to occupy leisure nobly; for—to speak about it yet again2—this
is the first principle of all things. For if although both business and leisure are necessary, yet leisure is more
desirable and more fully an end than business, we must inquire what is the
proper occupation of leisure. For assuredly it should not be employed in play,
since it would follow that play is our end in life. But if this is impossible,
and sports should rather be employed in our times of business (for a
man who is at work needs rest, and rest is the object of play, while business is
accompanied by toil and exertion), it follows that in introducing
sports we must watch the right opportunity for their employment, since we are
applying them to serve as medicine; for the activity of play is a relaxation of
the soul, and serves as recreation because of its pleasantness.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.